Despite all the advancement of technology, reading remains an important part of our everyday life, as it is encountered at every step, even though we may not be aware of it at all. It is the most important component of literacy as a learning tool, including fundamental human skills that apply to all areas of life; in education, at work, in cultural activities and in exercising our civil rights. Therefore, it is very important that each individual develops their reading comprehension to its full potential in both the mother tongue and the foreign language. Reading process in a foreign language is in principle the same as the reading process in the first language, but there are differences in reading that affect the reading process in a foreign language. One should also not neglect reading motivation that influences reading performance and the overall learning motivation of the learner, and since it is also closely linked to the development of literacy, it is crucial that we devote attention to it in the school environment. Motivation for reading is diverse and multidimensional, so we can't generally say that students are motivated or unmotivated to read, but they are motivated in different ways for different reading content. We must also not neglect that the motivation for reading directly influences how much pupils will read and indirectly their ability to understand, which refers to the impact on reading comprehension. The teacher's knowledge of the different motivational dimensions for reading is decisive when choosing a strategy that is implemented in incentives for an individual learner as regards the impact on the foundation of the development of his reading skills. Experts pay more attention to the motivation for reading in a foreign language over the past decade, but this topic has not yet been sufficiently explored in our country.
In the first part of the master's thesis some theoretical starting points are presented. In the empirical section, the course and results of quantitative research are presented. The data obtained from 198 pupils and pupils from the 6th grade of elementary schools in Slovenia provide an insight into the frequency of reading in English and the type of texts they read, as well as the dimensions of motivation for reading in a foreign language, the gender differences and the connection between the motivation for reading in the first language and the motivation for reading in a foreign language. The majority of participants read in English once a week, and English subtitles in films are the most commonly read type of text. Four factors were found that compose the motivation for reading in a foreign language for the selected sample, namely, extrinsic motivation for reading in a foreign language and the social aspect, intrinsic motivation for reading in a foreign language, intrinsic motivation for reading in the mother tongue and the influence of parents on reading. Among all the factors, the influence of parents on reading and internal motivation for reading in the mother tongue were the most important. It turned out that participants whose motivation depends on the influence of parents on reading are also intrinsically motivated to read in their mother tongue. The research also showed differences in gender motivation, with more girls reading voluntarily in English every day. Most girls read books, but the majority of boys claim that they do not read in English voluntarily, and they have lower intrinsic motivation for reading in their mother tongue than girls. The survey also showed that those who voluntarily never read in English are less likely to be intrinsically motivated to read in their mother tongue, and vice versa. In addition, higher intrinsically motivated readers in mother tongue are also higher intrinsically motivated for reading in a foreign language.
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